Unstoppable Park (KOR) ‘in love with’ Olympic Oval while mixed relay sends crowd wild
After winning his second ISU Four Continents Short Track Speed Skating gold medal in two days, Park Ji Won (KOR) declared he would like to “pack up” the Utah Olympic Oval and “take it home”.
It is no surprise. The Korean looked utterly unstoppable in Saturday’s 1000m, just as he has done ever since he arrived in Salt Lake City.
Park Ji Won (KOR) acknowledges victory in the 1000m to take his second gold medal of the Four Continents Short Track Championships. © ISU
“This ice is really fast, I love it,” Park said after dominating a relatively slow, tactical race to finish comfortably clear of silver medallist Pascal Dion (CAN).
The 21-year-old William Dandjinou (CAN) snatched a super bronze medal in a rare start at the elite level.
“Today suited me,” Park added. “Every athlete was waiting on each other to see who would go first and I think I managed to go when Pascal [Dion] was not expecting it.”
One thing the Canadian certainly was expecting was Park’s pace once he did go.
“Park is such a good skater at the finish. I tried to go round him but I couldn’t,” said Dion.
Canadians Pascal Dion (left) and William Dandjinou (right) join Park on the 1000m podium. © ISU
The difficulty for 28-year-old Dion was that he and teammate Steven Dubois (CAN) had pushed each other to a “crazy fast” semi-final. Dubois narrowly won that race in a time of 1:22.337, which was more than five seconds quicker than Park’s gold-medal mark and only 1.4 seconds outside the world record. In the end the effort that took proved the Canadians’ downfall.
“I was a bit out of legs,” Dion admitted. “I went to the front (in the final) but I was trying to go as slowly as possible to save my legs.”
Dubois faltered too, falling while attempting a pass on the final lap. However, the third Canadian in the race was justifiably delighted to sneak through and on to the podium.
“It’s been a few hard years,” bronze medal winner Dandjinou said. “I missed the Olympic Games [Beijing 2022] selection by one place [Dandjinou was Canada’s alternate] and then in October I missed the World Cup selections by one place too. So I only got the chance to race in the Four Continents in this 1000m and to win a medal means a lot.
“It’s the biggest moment of my career.”
Young guns fire hometown relay success
Marcus Howard (USA) is another who knows just what it is like to be looking up longingly at the very best Short Track skaters in the world. The 19-year-old is in his first year on the USA national team and reported that the Four Continents Championships had given him “an insight” into what he “needs to do” to get his skating “up to their level”.
The modest Howard is certainly a quick learner. He played a crucial role in helping the USA mixed relay team to gold ahead of China and Canada.
The USA quartet of Corinne Stoddard, Kristen Santos-Griswold, Andrew Heo and Marcus Howard celebrate victory in the mixed relay. © ISU
“It was pretty scary, I am not used to this level of competition but it was really exciting. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” Howard said.
Teammate Andrew Heo (USA), fresh from winning silver in the 500m on Friday, believes the world will be seeing plenty of Howard in the future.
“It’s great to have him on the team, I’ve watched him get super good,” Heo said, before revealing he had his own moment of insecurity during the relay final.
“After I saw Kristen [Santos-Griswold] pass the Chinese skater [with less than five laps to go] part of me was like ‘OK, big responsibility to bring it home’.”
Bring it home he did, to a rapturous reception from the home crowd.
A young China team finished off what was an encouraging Championships for them by taking gold in a wild men’s 5000m relay. Reigning Olympic champions Canada and reigning world champions Korea looked all set to battle it out for glory once more before clashing at the halfway mark and falling together to the ice together.
Li Kun, Liu Guanyi, Song Jiahua and Zhong Yuchen (CHN), winners of the men's 5000m relay. © ISU
That left Japan free to steal their first medal of the Championships, with Korea, led once again by Park, recovering to win bronze.
“Now I will rest,” Park said. “Then I will focus on the Crystal Globe.”
He and the rest of the best will indeed reconvene for the next leg of the ISU World Cup in Almaty, Kazakhstan 9-11 December 2022.
For all information about the ISU Four Continents Short Track Speed Skating Championships, please visit webpage here.
Where to watch
Viewers will be able to watch the Saturday and Sunday races via their national broadcaster/channel. You will find the full list of available channels on the Where to watch webpage here.
For countries where there are no broadcasters, the ISU will offer a live stream of the qualification and repechage rounds on the Skating ISU YouTube Channel. Make sure to subscribe to receive live stream notifications.
ISU Short Track Speed Skating Championships events 2022/23:
Nov 10 - 12, 2022 ISU Four Continents Short Track Speed Skating Championships – Salt Lake City (USA)
Jan 13 - 15, 2023 ISU European Short Track Speed Skating Championships – Gdansk (POL)
Jan 27 - 29, 2023 ISU World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships – Dresden (GER)
Mar 10 - 12, 2023 ISU World Short Track Speed Skating Championships – Seoul (KOR)
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